Texas college shooting results in multiple injuries

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(CNN) — Students ducked under desks and ran for cover during a shooting at a community college in Texas on Tuesday.

Three people were wounded, including a maintenance worker, in the shooting at the North Harris campus of Lone Star College in Houston, Harris County Sheriff’s Maj. Armando Tello said. All three were wounded by gunfire.

The shooting apparently stemmed from an argument between two men. Both were detained, sheriff’s officials said, but no arrests had been made and no charges had been filed by Tuesday afternoon.

The two men were among the injured, officials said. At least one of the men was armed.

Tello said a handgun was involved and one of the people detained had a student ID.

Jed Young, a school spokesman, said earlier that officials believe there were two shooters, and students were caught in the crossfire.

“I heard about six shots, and kids started rushing down the hallway and a few even came into our class … They were just shouting. I couldn’t hear anything,” said Amanda Vasquez, a freshman who was in English class when the shooting erupted. “For me, I was just trying to get under a table, get into the back corner of the room … and I called my mom just because I needed her to know that I was OK.”

“I saw two dudes basically get into an altercation and … the dude that shot, he basically got angry and, you know, started shooting the other guy,” she said. “A lot of people heard a lot of shots.”

A fourth person at the college suffered a heart attack during the shooting, according to a federal law enforcement official who received reports from the scene. Maj. Tello described the fourth person as a woman with some kind of medical complication and a student ID. She was treated at a hospital.

The shooting took place outside, between the academic building and the library, said Richard Carpenter, chancellor of the Lone Star College System.

The Lone Star College System is the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area, and the fastest-growing community college system in Texas, according to its website.

There were more than 10,000 students on the campus at the time of the shooting, said Young. The campus was evacuated and closed for the remainder of the day, according to a post on the school’s website. The campus will reopen Wednesday.

Police and emergency responders swarmed an entrance to the campus, aerial video from KPRC showed.

Medical personnel were seen treating at least two people and moving them to ambulances. One person appeared to be handcuffed to a stretcher. Students were jogging away from some buildings, with their hands up in the air, presumably in response to police instruction.

The maintenance worker was shot in the leg and was in stable condition Tuesday afternoon, said Carpenter. Officials described the worker as an innocent bystander.

“I heard no less than five shots, and I just ran,” one student told CNN affiliate KTRK. “My heart was pounding. I was praying I wouldn’t hear anymore shots. I was with a bunch of other people running and someone yelled out, ‘don’t push!’ People were crying, I had tears in my eyes.”

Another witness told KTRK he saw blood on the ground and someone shot in the leg.

“Beside him, there was one guy in handcuffs,” he said.

“I just heard somebody screaming, and then after that, I heard the shots,” another student told KPRC.

The Houston shooting comes roughly a month after the deadly shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school that ended with 26 people — including 20 children ages 6 and 7 — dead.

“We know that there is significant national dialogue regarding the frequency, unfortunately, of shootings like this on public school and college campuses,” said Carpenter. “Though we never expected to be a central part of this discussion, we hope that things can be learned from it.”

The Lone Star College system is the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area, and the fastest-growing community college system in Texas, according to its website.

A freshman who was in a nearby classroom, Amanda Vasquez, tells CNN’s Brooke Baldwin that she heard about six shots. She says she heard from other people that some shooting happened in a library, but she believes that the gunshots she heard came not from the library, but from the hallway outside her class.

“I was in the academic building, waiting for English class to start. I heard about six shots, and kids started rushing down the hallway. A few came into our class. It really happened so fast,” she said.

She said people were shouting, and she hid under a table in a corner of the classroom. She called her mother.

“I called my mom to (let her know) I was OK (and that) I loved her, just in case anything was going to happen,” Vasquez said. “… At first she didn’t believe me … but I kept telling her it’s happening and need you to call the cops.”

Someone – a fourth person – suffered a heart attack, according to a federal law enforcement source who is receiving reports from the scene, CNN’s Carol Cratty reports.

So, recapping what we’ve been told:

– Three people, including a gunman, were wounded in a shooting between two people on the North Harris campus of Lone Star College in Houston, school spokesman Jed Young said.
– The second gunman is on the loose but not believed to be on campus, Young said.
– A fourth person suffered a heart attack, according to the federal law enforcement source.
– The shooting happened at a campus library, the federal law enforcement source says.
– No deaths have been reported.

Two wounded people have been taken to surgery at Ben Taub Hospital and are in “relatively serious condition,” CNN affiliate KTRK reported. They were conscious when they arrived at the hospital, KTRK reported.

Three people – one suspected shooter and two people caught in a crossfire – were wounded in a shooting that appears to have been between two people at the Lone Star College campus in Houston, school spokesman Jed Young said.

The wounded suspect is in custody. The second gunman is on the loose, Young said.

Authorities believe the school is “under control, but the school still is being evacuated,” Young said.